In 1908 the Republican party nominated Sec retary of War William Howard Taft, of Ohio, for President and Congressman James S. Sher man, of New York, for Vice-President, The Democratic party for the third time selected William J. Bryan as its Presidential candidate and John W. Kern, of Indiana, for Vice-Presi dent. The Socialists nominated Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, and Ben Hanford, of New York; the Populists Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, and Samuel W. Williams, of Indiana; and the Prohibitionists Eugene W. Chafin, of Illinois, and Aaron S. Watkins, of Ohio. This election witnessed the entry of a new party into the political arena*— the Independence party, of which William R. Hearst, of New York, was the chief factor, and of which Thomas L. Hisgen, of Massachusetts, and John T. Graves, of New York (formerly of Georgia), were the candidates. The results of this elec tion were as follows: Taft, Republican, 7,637, 676; Bryan, Democrat, 6,393,182; Debs, Socialist, 448,453; Chafin, Prohibitionist, 241,252; Hisgen, Independent, 83,183; Watson, Populist, 33,871; Gillhaus, Socialist Labor, 15,421.
This election was remarkable in that nearly 1,350,000 more votes were cast than in the elec tion of 1904. Taft received a popular vote ex ceeding that of Roosevelt by over 14,000; Bryan received over 1,300,000 votes more than his predecessor, Parker; and the Socialist vote in creased more than 45,000. On the other hand the Prohibition vote was more than 17,000 less than that of 1904; the Populist vote was over 83,000 behind the vote of 1904; and the Social ist-Labor candidate less than 50 per cent of the vote of his predecessor. In this election the independence of the voters was again mani fested as it had been in 1904, several States which gave Taft majorities electing Democratic governors, notably Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio. Also several States that had previously been Republican in gubernatorial elections changed to the Democratic column, notably Colorado, Nebraska, and Ohio, while the usually Democratic Missouri elected a Repub lican governor. Oklahoma, with seven electoral votes, had been admitted as a State the election of 1904, thus increasing the electoral vote to 483 and raising the majority necessary to a choice from 239 to 242. The electoral college gave Taft 321 votes and Bryan 162.
The principal declarations in the platform of the Democratic party, adopted at Denver, Col., 10 July 1908 were as follows: Against the misuse of patronage on the part of the Presi dent; in favor of a law preventing any corporation con tributing to a campaign fund, and any individual contrib uting an amount above a reasonable minimum, and pro viding for the publication before election of all such contnbutions above a reasonable minimum; against the extension of the powers of the general government by judi cial construction; in favor of additions to federal remedies for the regulation of Interstate commerce and for the preven tion of private monopoly, as well as State remedies of the same kind; In favor of tariff reform by immediate revision and reduction of import duties; that articles entering into com petition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reductions made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufactures as are sold abroad more cheaply than at home, and that graduated reductions should be made in such other schedules as may be necessary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis; the immediate repeal of the tariff on pulp, print paper, lumber, timber and logs, and that these articles be placed upon the free list; Against private monopoly, as in 1904: — By first, the enactment of a law preventing a duplication of directors among competing corpo tions; second, a license system which will, without ab riddging the right of each State to create corporations or its right to regulate as it will foreign corporations doing business within its limits, make it neces sary for a manufacturing or trading corporation engaged in Interstate commerce to take out a federal license before it shall be permitted to control as much as 25 per cent of the product in which it deals, a license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such corporations of more than 50 pee cent of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States; and. third.
a law compelling such licensed corporations to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the country on the same terms after making due allowance for cost of transtion; Control over Interstate commerce byw•w. - and by each State within its borders, the platform containing detailed recommendations in this connection as well as on the subjects: of banking and an income tax; labor and injunctions; the American merchant marine; the navy; the protection of American citizens at home and abroad; civil service; pensions; the organization of a National Health Bureau; the extension of industrial education through agri tural experiment stations and secondary agricultural and mechanical ,colleges; the pamdar election of Senators; the admission of Arizona and New Mexico to statehood; free grazing upon public lands; the improvement of waterways; maintenance of post-roads; curtailment of arbitrary power on the part of the Speaker of the House; economy in admin. istration and a reduction in the number of office holders; conservation of natural resources; the independence of the Philippine Islands; developing closer tiee of Pan American friendship and commerce; regulation of rates and services of telegraph and telephone companies engaged in the trans mission of interstate messages.